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Psychiatric presentations to an A&E department

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David Ellis  and
Simon Lewis
David Ellis*
Affiliation:
Waterlow Unit, Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust, Highgate Hill, London N19 SNF
Simon Lewis
Affiliation:
Waterlow Unit, Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust, Highgate Hill, London N19 SNF
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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A survey is described of people presenting with psychiatric problems to a north London accident and emergency (A&E) department over three months. Forty per cent presented with deliberate self-harm and 25% of these left before being assessed. Twenty per cent of those with problems compatible with a diagnosis of severe mental illness also left before being seen by a doctor. Differences between presentations ‘out-of-hours' and ‘in-hours' are described. Factors predicting admission were: previous psychiatric admission, symptoms of a psychotic or affective disorder and non-permanent accommodation. The survey has implications for the process of triage in A&E departments and the organisation of mental health liaison services.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 21 , Issue 10 , October 1997 , pp. 627 - 630
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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